The present invention relates to providing sealing at the juncture of three gasketed members and particularly relates to motor vehicle engines of the type having banks of cylinders arranged in a V-configuration and having provision for deactivation of the combustion chamber valves during engine operation.
Engines with valve deactivation may employ a plurality of solenoid operated valves to control the flow of hydraulic fluid or engine lubricant to the valve lifters or lash adjusters in a manner to prevent the engine cam from moving the combustion chamber valves for individual cylinders thereby disabling charge flow to the cylinder and preventing combustion in the cylinder.
Heretofore, for multi-cylinder engines having a V-arrangement of the cylinder banks it has been found satisfactory to provide the control valves for valve deactivation on a common manifold which may then be easily attached to the top of the engine cylinder block in the valley or area between the cylinder banks in a V-type engine. However, such an arrangement requires interfacial sealing of the valve manifold assembly with not only the top of the engine block but also the edges of the adjacent cylinder heads in order to provide proper communication of the control valves with the oil galleries to the valve lifters or lash adjusters for each of the engine valves. In such an arrangement problems have been encountered in sealing at the juncture of the gaskets for the engine block, valve deactivation manifold and the cylinder head.
This problem is particularly difficult in view of the abutment of the gaskets between (i) the valve deactivation manifold and the cylinder block, (ii) between the deactivation manifold cylinder head and (iii) between the cylinder head and the cylinder block.
Accordingly, it has been desired to provide a simplified, low-cost way of sealing at the juncture of three components or members and particularly between the valve deactivation manifold, cylinder head and cylinder block for an internal combustion engine.